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Yearly Archives: 2012

Patrick Ishmael at Show-Me Daily highlights the recent case of a company receiving $5 million in tax incentives to move across the Kansas-Missouri border.

Well, meet the “half-mile move.” According to the Kansas City Star, SelectQuote Senior Insurance Services is poised to move just a couple blocks to its northwest, thanks in no small part to a multi-million dollar tax incentive package from the state of Kansas.

The Commonwealth Foundation notes that the Hershey Company received $2 million from economic development programs in Pennsylvania.

A prime example of this happened Tuesday, where taxpayers forked over more than $2 million dollars for the Hershey Company to expand a chocolate-making factory. While ribbon-cutting ceremonies make for good photo ops, the effects of distorting the market and playing favorites are not immediately seen.

The Austin Chronicle, citing Texans for Public Justice (TPJ), notes that a Texas corporate welfare program has experienced a number of troubling failures.

Of the 65 projects TPJ reviewed, it found that only 17 (26%) complied with their job commitments; 24 (37%) failed to deliver on their original 2010 job promises, 11 (17%) were terminated prematurely, seven (11%) are “troubled” (usually by defaults on job pledges), five (8%, including most of TEF’s largest grants) fraudulently claimed more jobs than they actually created, and one project claimed “new” jobs with hiring dates predating its TEF contract.

The US Export-Import Bank recently guaranteed over $2 billion in loans for huge, multi-national corporations. JP Morgan and and Reliance Industries Ltd are the latest beneficiaries of government largesse:

Continuing its efforts to support American jobs by boosting American exports, the board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has voted to extend a $1.06 billion direct loan and to guarantee a $1.06 billion JPMorgan Chase loan to Reliance Industries Ltd. (Reliance) of Mumbai, India….

David Langstaff, CEO of the Analytic Science Corporation, argued for an end to short-term thinking on the part of defense industry CEOs. Mr. Langstaff argued for $150 billion on defense cuts over the next decade:

David Langstaff, CEO of The Analytic Science Corporation, went even further, arguing that the Pentagon budget should be cut by around $150 billion over 10 years. Langstaff also chastised some in his industry for being “unwilling to park short-term self-interest…we need to stop pretending there’s a scenario out there that offers no defense cuts.

Shelby Sebens, a writer for the Northwest Watchdog, details the debate taking place in Oregon on giving Nike 40 years of tax certainty. However, many are criticizing the special bill because it will confer an unfair advantage for Nike over other competitors:

Taxpayers will foot a $13,000 bill when lawmakers convene Friday for a special session called by the governor to consider a proposal that would give tax certainty to Nike in exchange for jobs.

The fine bloggers at Against Crony Capitalism highlight a recent, fantastic New York Times study on the amount of grants states confer to huge companies. 48 companies have received over $100 million in state grants since 2007:

We give The New York Times a hard time (rightfully) on occasion, but the database their staff put together on state grants to corporations is fantastic, and easy to use.